1930 census

So it appears that this part of Berwyn was booming in the 1920’s. From farms and dirt roads to a booming neighborhood. My house was built in 1926 as were most of the houses on this block. There are a handful of houses on the 16th street end that are clearly 50-60’s construction and a vintage mid century modern house on the 18th corner. So these must have been vacant lots from the 1920’s.

I have a fascination with old census records. They contain so much information and the handwriting is so authentic to the era. Census records contain the location-city, street and house number and lists the inhabitants including birthplace, relation to each other, ages, occupation, home value, education level.

I can share the 1930 census for the 1600 block of Scoville Ave

From this record I can see that Anton Barton lived in my 4 year old house with his wife and 4 kids-18 year old daughter and 3 sons,16, 14 & 12. He was an electrician from Czechoslovakia. He house was valued at $12,000.

I love history!